Behind the camera

Behind this blog is Finnish photographer and a great friend of sci-fi, who was given a great opportunity to document this upcoming movie Iron Sky sequel, Called Iron Sky, The Coming Race. I am a full-time professional photographer and I own a small studio in central Finland Laukaa. I take pics from little childrens to big war machines, and almost everything in between them. This documentary project is going to be a really interesting one. My purpose is to document this movie when something interesting / bigger happens in film, or something that Iron Sky wants to be photographed. The project will take about two years, and the movie will be scheduled to come cinemas in 2016.

Anyone who has spent their childhood in 80’s will remember the time, when computers arrived to families, and absolutely brilliant sci-fi movies. In 80’s time went with Commodore 64, and later on Amiga 500, which deposed that great Commondore 64. We all remember (or at least those of you who will follow this blog) the legendary games such as Ultimas, Space Rogue, Carrier Command, Midwinter, Elite, Dungeon Master, AD & D series, I can go on with this list for a long… And the board games themselves, I would like to raise up the Space Crusade from 90’s which I play today a few times per year with old my colleagues. There are small changes from 90’s. In 90’s Coca-Cola was official game drink, now Cola has been changed to high-quality whiskey.

Then the 80’s golden classic movies, The Last Starfighter, Goonies, Star Wars, Aliens, ET, The Abyss, Star Trek, Terminator, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Blade Runner, The Thing, Spaceballs. This game / movie list is the reason why I want to document this movie. As I listed above It reveals that I’m old-fashioned sci-fi nerd, and I have had fortunate that I can document this new Iron Sky movie. I think and I bet also that the makers of Iron Sky are also pretty much the same mental and they have also been influenced by those goldies of that period. Therefore it is nice to do this work with them

The first stage the storyboarding, Iron Sky Universe office.

Jyväskylä at 5:30, breakfast, large cup of coffee and little snacks. On the way to storyboard meeting I was thinking what kind of people are these makers of Iron Sky, because I had not met them before. I was also thinking how to work with the staff meeting, what kind of distances you keep to them when take pics, to not interfere with their work? Each documentary case has a different way to work, a lot of this depends on the type of documentary you are going to do. This type of documentary like Iron Sky, the best way to take pics is to keep distance and stay out of sight. This is basic rule to me in documentary filming, to stay out of the way, and be as “invisible” you can. Each documentaries have they own “thing”, which tells the viewer clearly what is being done. It is also important to capture situation “atmosphere”. Every photographer has they own style to do documentary pics. And this is my way…

I walk along the “Freda” to the Iron Sky Universe offices, as Hesalaiset says about Frederick street. I have to admit that I was a little bit nervous in every foot step that I take towards Iron Sky Universe offices. Even I have seen a lot of different places and situations with my camera. When I finally arrived to the office Anniina was greeting me and she had made good cup of ”mud coffee” (Sonera’s term for a cup of coffee from my previous work). In fact, the coffee which Anniina made was excellent, the beans were milled on in office. In my studio I used to drink fast and cheap Pirkka ”kura=mud” coffee I took coffee with me and went to meeting room to wait the start of a meeting. I was alone in meeting room waiting for others to arrive. I began to explore my camera equipments while waiting and getting ready for first shooting. The first who arrived was storyboard artist Anssi Rauhala. We discussed with Anssi about this project and found there is something else common interest, airplanes and flying. Then came the movie cinematographer Mika Orasmaa and director Timo Vuorensola. Right from the start the atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable, so now I was able to relax a little bit.

A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture. Storyboard is like a little drawn comic book about happenings of the movie. Storyboard artist role is to listen discussions between director and cinematographer and draw their visions to into various small boxes into blank paper. This was really interesting to watch all the expressions, feelings and visions between director and cinematographer. Let the Pictures speak for themselves, see you next time…

-T

Timo is trying some sign language.Whats happening in my screen…?Hmmm… Earth or moon?Earth absolutely in earth… Mika is planning some camera angles.Anssi is sketching Timos and Mikas visions.Anssi has drawn first scenes of the movie.Mika visualizes camera angles.And Anssi draw them into paper.It should go like this…Sometimes it was quite precise work.Timo and positive feelings.Everybody are thinking together and solving some problems.Mister Orasmaa is getting to absorbed in.Think think think…Haa!!! Casting Icestorm spell, or just visualize?And here are the results from this storyboard meeting… :)